I still remember first meeting you when
You were a small blond kid about nine or ten
Your mother went missing and your father drank
For your first real home you had an aunt to thank
You came to stay when you were still quite young
You had mischievous eyes and a razorsharp tongue
Life has its interludes and this was one
As we'd pretend for the weekend you were our son
We used to pick you up when you were feeling blue
Take you out to the movies and the circus too
But nothing's forever and it couldn't last
We had our own baby, and the moment passed
If you felt betrayed, boy, you hid it well
But when I think back now I feel guilty as hell
You hit the bottle when you hit your teens
Became runaway jailbait for chicken queens
Don't jump, don't fall
There's a world of love out there and you can have it all
I must admit it must've seemed like fun
The kind of life you lived when you were on the run
The tricks you turned, and the drugs you'd done
As you scraped the barrel with your lowlife chums
You were always so certain you'd never see thirty
When you called collect to talk drunk and dirty
A restless aching deep within
And the pain of inhabiting a human skin
Don't jump, don't fall,
Here's a world of love out there and you could have it all
Don't jump, don't fall,
Standing on that balcony, your back against a wall
You must have been shaking with a terrible dread
As you climbed unsteady from your unmade bed
Did you feel relief or did you just feel numb
To know your moment had finally come
When you left the flat on that final night
Did you lock the door, did you leave the light
Did you think of her, did you think of me
Or did you simply think you were about to be free
The alcohol raging round your veins
The black depression pouring down like rain
I pray to God by every holy name
My own sweet children never know that pain
Don't jump, don't fall,
Here's a world of love out there and you could have it all
Don't jump, don't fall,
Standing on that balcony, your back against a wall
Don't jump